Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/321

 IX.] PuN,NCE---COrEOOtON. 33 "Gan0n 8. Whoever shall airarm that the confession of every sin, according to the custom of the church, is impossible, and merely a human mutition, which the pious shonM reject; or that all Christians, of' both sexes, are not bound to observe the same once a year, accord- ing to the constitution of the great Conneil of Lateran; and therefore that the faithful in Christ are to be persuaded not to confess in Lent; let him be accursed." From the Catechism of the Council of Trent we make the following extracts :w,, Mortal sins, as we have already said, although buried in the darkest secrecy, and also sins of desire only, such as are forbidden by the ninth and tenth commandments, are all and each of them to be made matter of confession."..." With the bare enumeration of our mortal sins we should not be satisfied; that enumeration we should accompany with the relation of such circumstances as considerably aggravate or extenuate their malice."---Pp. 258, 259. After censuring those who justify or extenuate their sins, the Catechism declares :-- "Still more pernicious is the conduct of those who, yielding to a foolish bashfulness, cannot induce themselves to confess their sins. Such persons are to be encouraged by exhortation, and to be reminded that there is no reason whatever why they should yield to such false delicacy; that to no one can it appear surprising if persons fall into sin, the common malady of the human race, and the natural appendage of human misery."P. 264. If this quotation is not itself an apology not only for the commission of sin, but also the repetition thereof, it will be (]ifficnlt to say what an apology for sin is. This is the avowed doctrine of the Church of Rome, given from their infallible standards. But we atfirm it to be erroneous, and inju- rious to the souls of men. But before wo enter into the formal examination of auricular confee- sion, we will give the comfitsot, or form of confession, which'is as fol- lows :--" I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary, ever a virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, to all the saints, and to thee, father, that I have sinned exceedingly, in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my most grievotm fault: therefore I beseech the blessed Mary, ever a virgin, the blessed Michael the Archangel, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, all the saints, and thee, fater, to pray to the Lord our Sod for me." 3. We object to auricular confession, because they make it to be Christ's institution and necesftary to salvation, although it has no foundation in the word of God. Several passages of Scripture are, however, adduced by the maintainers of this doctrine. The principal passage, and that on which they most insist, is, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another," James v, 16. But the plain import of this passage is, that all Christians should mutually confess their faults to one another; because, 1. It is not said, Confe.ss your faults to the elders; but to one another. . This passage require8 as' tnuch the priest to confess to the people, as the people to the priest. 3. There is no mention made here of aimslutish by a priest, or by any other person. For these reasons, auricular con- fernion to a priest alone has no support from the passage. The confession of the Jews, on the seenion of John the Baptio l

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